A quick intro for those who don't know: The Holocaust was just one aspect of Nazi Germany's rule of most of Europe during World War II. But the Holocaust began before the war. The Nazis targeted many different ethnic groups that they considered inferior to the Aryan race typified by blond-haired, blue-eyed Nordic people. Germans, in their view, were superior. Slavs, Gypsies, and Jews were inferior, as were deviants within the Aryan race, such as homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, and 'asocials'--which could be just about anyone. But the Jews were the only group targetted for extermination. Auschwitz was just one camp among hundreds of concentration camps set up by the Nazis. But it is more than that. It was the largest concentration camp, and it was an extermination camp as well. It was actually a complex of three major camps: Auschwitz I--the main camp, Auschwitz II--Birkenau, and Auschwitz III--Monowicz, which actually contained many smaller satelite camps. By the end of the war, Auschwitz I and II had five gas chambers and crematoria between them. Hundreds of thousands died in the gas chambers or from starvation, disease, exhaustion, cold, or brutality in the camp itself. The total number of deaths is debated, but the figure is always set at more than one million victims.
As a teacher in the Czech Republic during the 1994-1995 school year, I mentioned that I wanted to go to Auschwitz. The civics teacher overheard me and decided that this was a good idea for a student trip. Over forty students signed up for the trip and we left in November. We went to Auschwitz I for the tour and then to Auschwitz II, though the tour there was cut short. We ended the day in nearby Krakow. It was a rewarding, if sobering, trip. I took many pictures, and I'll share some below.
This is the gas chamber at Auschwitz I. My other pictures of this camp didn't turn out well enough to post them here.
This gas chamber has a crematoria attached, just inside. It is the only one still standing at Auschwitz. An uprising by
Jewish Sonderkommando workers (They loaded people into the gas chambers and burned the bodies afterward. They themselves
were generally gassed every few months.) destroyed one of the four in Birkenau in October of 1944. The Nazis destroyed the
other three before the camp was liberated.
This is the first view of Auschwitz II--Birkenau. Barbed wire fences. These fences were electrified and guarded as well. Prisoners sometimes committed suicide by throwing themselves on the fences.
This is the main gate leading into Birkenau. In 1942, the rail line was brought right into the camp, with the trains passing under the main tower here.
This is the railroad spur, built in 1942, that brought the trains right into the camp. This made unloading more efficient since the tracks led near to the gas chambers in the distance. You can see some barrack buildings at the left.
Here are some more barrack buildings. These were built like stables. There were rows of bunks down either side, three bunks high. As many as 5 men might be assigned to one bunk. Hundreds of men (and women in their side of the camp) were crowded into these inadequately heated and unsanitary buildings. Early in the morning, they'd be taken out for forced labor. They'd return in the evening, exhausted from the toil. A meager meal awaited them, and then curfew.